Urban – Page 139 – Natural adventures

6121. Frome Side (36)

The day after the wedding party before… Actually I was a designated driver last night and am feeling good, apart from suffering with a sore throat from competing with some rather loud music. I feel my age on these occasions. I am pressed for time this morning, so a couple of quick posts for you.

DFC1848 paid one of his occasional visits to Bristol in May, and left a few of his hallmark character pieces behind, including this cutie under the M32. As ever it is always great to see his characters, which he has been developing over the last few years. I fully expect to see him painting at the Cheltenham Paint Festival next month.

6120. M32 Cycle path (268)

Hemper, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, June 2024

In Bristol we are spoilt and have become accustomed to seeing extraordinary wildstyle graffiti writing from Hemper on a regular basis. This wonderful organic piece is simply the latest in an outstanding series from the talented artist.

The letters spell out HEMS and have remarkable depth to them created through both incredible design and technique using light and shade. The whole thing almost looks like a metal plate or buckle slapped onto the wall. Subtle colours, shiny light and a cool drippy border all contribute to the overall 3D effect. What a beauty.

6119. Leonard Lane (47)

John D'oh, Leonard Lane, Bristol, June 2024 — John D’oh, Leonard Lane, Bristol, June 2024

It is rather pleasing to be posting another stencil piece, there have been a rash of them lately, and especially one from John D’oh, who has been a little quiet over the last six months or so. This is one of a couple of pieces by the artist currently in Leonard Lane.

This philosophy, I am not sure if it is a quote (Update: it is a quote from the brilliant Chrisopher Walken) or a wisdom from John D’oh himself, is perhaps a message of our times and our collective obsession with consumption, upgrade and appearance. It reads:

“If you knew how quickly people forget the dead, you would stop living to impress people”.

I think that this is aimed at people with outer-directed values, a segment of our society that has ballooned since Thatcher came to power. The statement is accompanied by a skeleton character holding a spray can. Great work from John D’oh.

6118. St Werburghs tunnel (428)

A quick couple of posts today, because I am writing this in advance of my niece’s wedding party today, and have a rather squeezed timetable. There is something rather special happening with Benjimagnetic’s work at the moment, and I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is, but he seems to have stepped up a level recently, with some great designs and a cleaner look to his pieces.

Benjimagnetic, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2024

This one in the tunnel is an absolute belter and the colour selection is sublime and may, in part, be what is contributing to his new level. Ordinary Benjimagnetic writes BEN, but I am struggling a little to read this piece. I am very much enjoying this strong surge of pieces from Benjimagnetic.

6117. Cumberland Basin

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024

Although I have been featuring Solar on Natural Adventures since 2021, it wasn’t until May this year that I actually got to meet him while he was painting this piece. As with pretty much all the artists I meet he is a really nice person and managed to instantly dispel some of my imagined preconceptions of members of the PLB crew, which were largely based around not having met any of them.

I would categorise Solar’s writing style as soft anti-style, meaning that while he bucks the trend of conventional graffiti writing, there is some order and consistency to his letters, nothing too chaotic or anarchic. The letters are nicely done but the star of the show is the ‘implied’ drop shadow in blue and black, which is a very clever mechanism I haven’t seen deployed before. You’d think that the colour scheme wouldn’t work, and at first that was my impression, but actually it seems to work remarkably well.

6116. Leonard Lane (46)

My sister and brother-in-law had a wonderful West Highland white terrier, or Westie as they are commonly known, called Jessie, who died a little over a year ago at a ripe old age. She was very sweet, and although I didn’t much like dogs when they first got her, I did warm to her over the years. When I saw this beautiful little stencil at the entrance of Leonard Lane by Man-X, my mind immediately turned to Jessie.

I believe that Man-X AKA Alix Lemetayer is a French stencil artist, but I can find little more information about him. This is a lovely stencil, so full of personality, and captures the animal perfectly. I believe that he may have placed another stencil in the Lane during his visit to Bristol, which I think I missed when I found this Westie, so I rather need to go back. Dogs and stencils, what’s not to love?

6115. Moon Street (106)

Ooh! This is a superb ‘extra’ stencil piece painted by Goin while he was in Bristol for Upfest. It is pieces like this that separate out the ‘circuit muralists’ from the everyday street artists. Although Goin is often a featured artist at paint festivals, he likes to paint on the streets too, which is something I like and appreciate.

This is a telling stencil piece, and I don’t think that you need to be a genius to work out what is going on. A soldier is pointing his rifle at a tiny ladybird, and the latter obviously doesn’t stand a chance in this contest. There are many ways of protesting against war, and this piece from Goin is a very powerful image making the point. The red colour of the ladybird in a strange way offers some hope and beauty to this horrific scene. Thank you Goin for this wonderful gift to Bristol.

6114. M32 roundabout J3 (583)

Laic217, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2024

This is an absolutely classic example of Laic217’s work. Technically and stylistically superb, the piece features two skeletons, one of which is DJing with a twin turntable and the other apparently having a great time.

The artistry in the greyscale piece is outstanding, with the story playing out really clearly. The decorative shapes bursting around the piece add a sense of movement and energy coming from the music, and the two gold touches, on the DJ’s hand and a tooth, are classy additions. I love the additional touch of LAIC217 appearing on the record label, rounding the whole thing off nicely. This is a truly fabulous and energetic piece from Laic217.

6113. Sparke Evans Park (98)

Stivs, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2024

Stivs has utterly smashed it with this outstanding writing/character combination piece, which was painted alongside a Kosc piece (featured a few days ago) on the long wall at Sparke Evans Park. Stivs is an artist of many talents, and although he in well known predominantly for his calligraffiti, he isn’t half bad at painting characters, as this piece demonstrates.

Although he is a bit of a ‘potty-mouth’, this piece reads ‘FUK PIG’, he dresses the letters up so beautifully, that it kind of creates a profanity filter of sorts. The cartoon-style character, probably lifted from a film or cartoon series, is beautifully presented and makes you wonder why he doesn’t paint characters more often. Together with the Kosc piece, this is one half of a very fine collaboration.

Kosc, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2024

6112. Devon Road (21)

There are some spots in Bristol where the turnover tends to be slow that I don’t visit all that often, and Devon Road is one of these. I was pleased, however, on a recent visit to find this joyful mural by Zubieta, which looking at her Instagram feed looks like it was painted in early June, so I did indeed strike lucky.

Zubieta’s citrus fruit themed piece is not only beautiful to look at, but was actually painted over a couple of throw ups which had messed this wall up a bit, and I guess the owners may have asked for or commissioned the mural. You can see a short video of the painting of the piece on Zubieta’s Instagram. A really lovely mural.

	Sheree on 7433. St Werburghs tunnel…
	Bill Bisgood on By a frozen lake
	scooj on 7432. M32 roundabout J3 (…
	scooj on Mont Blanc
	scooj on Mont Blanc

	Sheree on 7433. St Werburghs tunnel…
	Bill Bisgood on By a frozen lake
	scooj on 7432. M32 roundabout J3 (…
	scooj on Mont Blanc
	scooj on Mont Blanc

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: